The Time Rip (33 page)

Jeremy nodded seriously, “You are more than welcome to stay. In fact, I was contemplating how to suggest it without putting your back up.”

Freya fidgeted around for a few minutes, watching him work. “You wanted me to stay anyway?”

Jeremy sighed, “This is the second time Martin has come after you with a knife, and this time he had restraints to bind you with. What do you think?”

As she thought through all the implications of this, Freya felt slightly sick. If she hadn’t stopped to get that stone out of her shoe, things might have happened very differently.

“At least Martin can’t get back here. I’ll be safe from him here.”

Jeremy surveyed her evenly, “Why can’t he get back here?”

“Because he doesn’t have a time machine, of course.”

“And the time rip?”

Freya blinked, and then quickly looked down. “I didn’t use any stupid time rip, I don’t even know what one is.”

“What setting did you use on the device? Describe it to me.”

Freya was silent. He had neatly trapped her there.

Jeremy nodded once, “So. A time rip.” Freya made an annoyed sound and Jeremy sighed. “Do you think to convince me there is no time rip? I am going out to look for him. What if he stumbles across it and finds you here alone?”

She shook her head. “Don’t go. I don’t want you to get hurt on my account.”

“I won’t be hurt, and as there
is
a time rip somewhere close, I’ll leave someone here with you while I’m out. Martin is not getting another chance at you.”

“Who will you leave here?”

“My brother, Daniel.”

“There’s not a time rip and I don’t want to stay here alone with your brother. I don’t know him.”

Jeremy shook his head and took a can of baked beans from the cupboard. “You’re about to, and if I were you I’d make myself agreeable. Daniel is not someone you want to annoy. I can find it in me to feel sorry for Martin if he does manage to find your time rip and circle back here.”

“If that’s supposed to make me feel better, it hasn’t worked.”

Jeremy shrugged and said, “Right at this moment I don’t care how you feel about Daniel. He’s coming here and that’s all there is to it.”

Freya scowled, torn between wanting to storm out and stay to eat. Hunger was currently winning out so she stayed silent and reasoned that she could always do any storming after she had eaten.

Jeremy refrained from questioning her further and, tucking into beans on toast, she began to feel more reasonable.

She listened while he phoned his brother.

“Yeah, how are you?” Jeremy said. A pause then, “I need a favour. I’ve got a situation with a time rip here…Yeah, I know, what are the chances?” A longer pause, “Yes. I need to go hunting, but Freya’s here and I can’t leave her alone in case the quarry doubles back here.” Another pause, “A bigger problem than we’d initially thought…All right, I’ll see you shortly.”

Jeremy hung up and began to clear the dishes. The kitchen was glowing with light from the setting sun, and she thought back on her first visit here. She hadn’t had a clue that she’d time travelled, had simply been trying not to appear too crazy to a very attractive stranger. Everything had been so much simpler then. A sudden rap on the door banished the memories and made her jump.

Jeremy gave her a slight smile, “It’s all right. Your babysitter is here.” He opened the door to his brother.

Daniel was maybe late twenties with the same dark good looks. His build was close to Jeremy’s, unlike Brett’s stocky frame, but he too lacked the feline grace Jeremy possessed. His expression was flatter, difficult to read, and his eyes were hard. The dark brown that appeared almost black showing no glint of humour. A floppy raincoat hung open over faded black jeans and a grubby tee shirt.

“Daniel, good to see you, thanks for getting here so quickly.” Jeremy took the man’s outstretched hand and they had a one-armed hug.

“Jeremy.” Daniel’s tone was as rich and smooth as his brother’s. The resemblance between them was uncanny.

Jeremy gestured, “This is Freya Keele. Freya, my brother, Daniel.”

“Hi, I’ve heard lots about you,” he said.

Just how many brothers did he have anyway? “Have you? I haven’t heard anything about you at all.” She directed a meaningful look at Jeremy as she spoke, pushing her empty plate away from her.

Jeremy returned her look blandly. “You might have heard something if you’d stayed to talk to me instead of running away at every opportunity.”

She glared at him, arms folded. She was not impressed that he accused her of running away like some scared little girl, in front of his brother. “What did you expect? You handcuffed me to your freaking bed frame and chased me across the back yard and stole my clothes and threatened to take me to some freaking courts system when I haven’t done
anything
wrong.” She sucked in a breath, “And you’re arrogant.”

Daniel, who had looked blank throughout this explosion, now glanced at Freya and said, “What’s wrong with that?”

Jeremy spared Daniel a quelling glance and pursed his lips in thought. “Are you referring to the clothes you left here after you picked my handcuffs? Your boots are over there. The other items have been laundered and are upstairs.”

Freya followed his hand gesture and saw her knee length boots with stiletto heel by the coal burner. Daniel met Jeremy’s eyes and managed to suppress his laughter, but the look they shared spoke volumes.

“Didn’t say anything,” Daniel grinned.

“Don’t worry, you haven’t competition. They were 2008.”

Freya ignored this exchange and scrambled up to run and put her boots on. Unlike today’s sandals that were still outside somewhere, the boots had been here some time and were clean and dry, and the three inches added enormously to her confidence.

Daniel began to open cupboards and turned with a jar of coffee. Passing it carelessly between one hand and the other, he threw it in the air and stood, hands on hips, facing his brother. “Jer, you’ve got no tea.”

Freya realised she was waiting for the coffee jar to fall. It took her a moment to catch up that it had apparently vanished.

Jeremy shook his head, “Looks like I’ve got no coffee now either.”

Daniel sauntered over to Freya and she felt the weight of the jar in the pocket of her cardigan just before he pulled it out, “Look at that, she lifted your coffee jar.”

Freya gasped and then laughed.

Daniel lifted Freya’s empty plate and took it across to the sink. He smirked at Jeremy. “What was it you said the other week about Brett always buying dinner for his girlfriends? Something about his need to feed them?”

“Shut up, Dan.” Jeremy turned to Freya, “I’ll see you later. Daniel is going to stay with you while I’m gone.”

“Happy hunting,” said Daniel, already going through cupboards again. The door closed behind Jeremy. Freya watched his brother absently pulling tins out of the cupboard and slinging them on the table.

“What are you looking for?” she asked, wondering what she was supposed to talk about with Daniel.

“Jer’s brandy.”

“You’re gonna get drunk?”

“Never drink on the job. There’s more than one use for brandy.”

Not sure how she felt about being classed as a job, Freya watched Daniel pick through the ingredients on the table, chucking most of it back, and then begin to search out other items.

She surveyed those that stayed on the table. “Cake?”

“Nah. Pancakes.” He produced a jar of Nutella from the pocket of his huge overcoat and waved it in front of her, “Yes?”

“Cor, yes, brilliant. I want to flip first though.”

“You can flip them all if you like. The last time I tried this, I got one stuck to the ceiling.”

“Yeah? You’d better let me cook then. You’re gonna be in big trouble if you make a mess here, Jeremy’s pretty scary when he gets mad.”

“Nah, Brett’s the scary one. You don’t want to wind up my little brother, Brett. I’ll have to introduce you some time.”

“I’ve already met him and he wasn’t scary at all.”

“You’ve met him? Jer told me you hadn’t met any of us.”

Oops. She caught her top lip between her teeth for a second. “I forgot about that. Don’t tell Jeremy, Brett said he didn’t want him to know.”

Daniel grinned, “Why doesn’t he want him to know?”

“Well, um, see the thing is… he hasn’t met me
yet
.”

Daniel cocked an eyebrow. “How did he manage that, was someone else with him?”

Freya had to pause to catch up. Couldn’t. “What?”

“Brett doesn’t own a time device. Was someone else with him?”

She sucked in a breath. Apparently, lighting fast thinking ran in this family. “Not when I saw him, but he borrowed my van so maybe he went to meet someone.”

“Can’t get much from that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. Tell me the rest.”

“I met the him from some time in the future, but if you ask him now then he hasn’t met me yet.”

“When was this exactly, and where?”

Freya looked into dark eyes sharp with interest and suddenly felt uneasy. “I can’t remember. It was a while ago now.”

Daniel snickered and seemed to change tack. “Jeremy has really got his hands full hasn’t he?”

Freya scowled, “What do you mean? It wasn’t my fault Brett recognised me. I thought he was Jeremy at first.”

“Bet that went down well. Never mind then, let’s have a go at these pancakes.”

Freya soon discovered that Daniel was a terrible cook, and as she wasn’t much better they made a mess of the kitchen anyway.

Daniel insisted on pouring brandy over the pancakes and setting them alight, which was fun, but left scorch marks on the ceiling where he was a bit over zealous with the stuff.

Later on, Freya sat at the table, deep in thought, pretending to sip her coffee. Daniel made horrible coffee, weak and watery.

The back door suddenly opened, and Martin strode in and walked up to her. Before she could think, let alone react, he had reached her and pulled her out of the chair by her arm. It happened incredibly fast. She inhaled to shout and Martin clamped a hand over her mouth.

His voice was a soft growl in her ear, “You make one peep and I’ll gut you.”

Freya couldn’t make a sound. The tip of a knife pressing against her skin robbed her of all coherent thought.

It took a few seconds for her to realise he had let go, she turned in time to see Daniel, face like stone, twist the knife from his hand and coldly slit Martin’s throat.

Blood gushed down Martin’s shirtfront in torrents with a sudden bang that made her jump and jolt upright.

Freya’s relief to find herself sitting at the kitchen table was mixed with horror over the dream and confusion about what had woken her.

She looked around the quiet, messy kitchen. Her half-cup of coffee was beginning to congeal and the dream felt horribly close. She drew in a breath, “Daniel!” her voice was high, more panicked than she had anticipated.